Columbus, Ohio's New Village Place -- winner of the 2006 James B. Recchie Award for Urban Design -- seamlessly marries market-rate and affordable housing with striking designs that respect the historic character and fabric of the neighborhood.
"'You don't often see public housing up for an architecture award,' [Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) Executive Director Dennis] Guest said. 'We've gotten nothing but compliments from the neighbors.'"
"CMHA chose Lincoln Street Studio architects Frank Elmer and Ruth Gless because 'they were creative and we wanted to do something different,' Guest said."
"'We really wanted to do the project because we live here,' Gless said. 'We wanted to make a contribution to our neighborhood.'"
"They designed New Village to resemble the rest of the neighborhood, mostly two-unit town houses built close together on a grid of new city streets."
100 units fill 37 buildings on the six acre site of a former 10-story housing project, whose demolition in 2001 removed its blighting influence from the growing appeal of Columbus' Italian Village neighborhood.
"Twenty town houses scattered among six blocks on Summit Street are set aside for public housing, whose residents pay an average of $300 monthly. The units are identical to the market-rate units, priced between $750 and $1,275 a month, property manager Sharon Giles said."
